You’d think that at more than £1,000 a night the least you’d get for your money would be four walls to your hotel bedroom. But not at the opulent  Jade Mountain resort on the Caribbean island of St Lucia.

Believe it or not, that is just one of the hotel’s many unique selling points. In addition to the panoramic views the missing wall affords of the spectacular Piton mountains - a UNESCO World Heritage Site - the resort has banned the use of telephones, televisions and radios in its 29 “sanctuaries” while guests are requested to have their mobile phones on vibrate so as not to detract from the ambience.

And it must work because among the prestigious accolades it has garnered are Conde Naste Traveler magazine voting Jade Mountain one of the top two
resorts in the Caribbean, Travel + Leisure giving it an A* for “charm and attention to detail” and Johansens deeming it the most romantic holiday hideaway in the West Indies.

Set in 600 acres in the south of St Lucia, the resort would look more at home in an avant garde architectural magazine than a holiday brochure. The brainchild of owner Nick Troubetzkoy, an architect originally from British Columbia who first came to St Lucia in the 1970s, and his German-born wife Karolin, the hotel from the front looks like an ancient Inca temple covered in jungle creepers.From the back though it could easily be mistaken for the high-tech lair of a Bond villain: with each suite having its own suspended walkway, guests are certainly left stirred if not shaken.

“The traditional daunting hotel corridor has been transformed,” says Nick, now in his seventies. “The adventurous journey to your sanctuary is via a long sky bridge to infinity which is yours and yours alone. Your first step inside creates an instant spiritual uplift with the infinity pool in front of you a luminescent Persian carpet floating you out into space to hover over the Caribbean Sea.”

Purple prose it may be, but as soon as you enter your room you know what he’s talking about. Each suite is modelled on an open-plan concept with 15ft high ceilings and exquisite bathrooms designed by Antonio Citteiro and the ubiquitous Philipp Starck.

All the sanctuaries also have their own infinity pools dreamed up in collaboration with David Knox of California-based company Lightstreams: the end result being stunning reflective pool tiles – ranging in colour from amber to amazing shades of blue and green – which match Nick’s revolutionary approach to exterior as well as interior design.

The modern living areas are finished with tropical hardwood floors harvested with a conservationist approach based on Nick’s lifelong concern for the environment. Jade Mountain’s ‘technicians’ personally visited the rainforests in Guyana to choose which trees to use – selecting among others Greenheart, Snakewood and Kabukali – while the walls are finished in a crushed coral plaster quarried sympathetically in Barbados.

“It was imperative for us that this complex creative act was accomplished using the palette of indigenous materials lying at our very door step,” says Nick proudly. “Our mantra throughout, as well as being location, location, location, was as importantly also local, local, local.”

As for the food, well, like the hotel, it is an eclectic mix. You can either eat on the roof-top terrace or have it served in your suite by your very own butler. Combining European, Far Eastern and Caribbean cuisines, James Beard award-winning chef Allen Susser has created culinary delights which linger long after the meal has finished.

“The cooking is fresh, simple and succinct,” says Allen. “There is always flexibility for the seasons and availability of local produce – as a chef my passion is taste.”

If you want to it is easy to stay in your room for your entire holiday – the record so far is a Texan millionaire and his girlfriend who did not venture out for four days – but for the more adventurous there is plenty to do at the resort.

With guests at Jade Mountain having full use of its sister hotel Anse Chastenet’s facilities, either on the mountainside or on one of the resort’s two private beaches, you will find a Cybex Fitness Studio, a spa, tennis, mountain biking (on top-of-the-range Cannondale cycles), kayaking (on specialist Prijon boats) and a multitude of water sports including sunfish sailing and windsurfing. Jade Mountain also has a dedicated scuba-diving school, while the hotel also has its own 60ft catamaran the Lucky T.

Ten minutes from the resort by car (or preferably four-wheel drive on St Lucia’s unpredictable roads) is Soufriere. The town used to be the island’s capital in colonial days and is billed as the world’s only drive in volcano. Nearby are the Diamond waterfalls and sulphur springs, but if you venture even further afield, St Lucia has much to offer either the seasoned Caribbean traveller or the first-time visitor.

About 45 minutes away on the island’s west coast is the hidden gem of Marigot Bay, where the original Doctor Dolittle was filmed with Rex Harrison, while at the northern end of the island is the Mon Sorciere cable-car, the islands’s only 18-hole golf course at Cap Estate and the Beausejour Cricket Ground (which was chosen as one of the prestigious semi-final venues when the World Cup was staged for the first time in the Caribbean in 2007). Every May the island also hosts the international St Lucia Jazz Festival with past luminaries including Carlos Santana, Dionne Warwick, Rihanna and Herbie Hancock.

The one blight on St Lucia, which it shares with many other Caribbean states, is the increasing crime rate. Last month there were six murders in just one weekend on the island – including the unsolved shooting of a Danish woman in Soufriere – but with a general election planned for the 29th of this month many hope that it will signal a change in policy with a new emphasis on curbing gun crime. Tourists are usually not affected, but whatever the problems, they certainly haven’t been bad enough to deter the rich and famous from coming to the island with Oprah Winfrey, Nicolas Cage and Bill Clinton among the visitors to have sung St Lucia’s praises in recent years.

Jade Mountain, although it strives to keep the identity of its guests secret, has also had its share of famous visitors. U2’s Adam Clayton has stayed there while Wales rugby star Gavin Hanson filmed the climax to Channel 5’s recent The Bachelor series on the hotel’s Celestial Terrace. With so much pampering and indulgence on tap, it’s no surprise to discover that the late Amy Winehouse was another famous guest.

After all, there’s nothing better than a little Jade Mountain rehab…

Travel log...
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have direct flights to St Lucia twice a week either from Gatwick or Heathrow airports. Jade Mountain is offering a ’Total Romance’ package from now until December 19 with prices ranging from $12,116 to $22,028 (please check exchange rates at time of booking) for a couple depending on which suite category chosen. In addition to seven nights’ accommodation, the package will include all tax and service, airport transfers both ways, breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner, all drinks including house wine (but not bottled wines and champagne), welcome cocktail, tour of the volcano, Sulphur Springs and Diamond Mineral Baths, a guided tour of the old French Colonial Plantation of Anse Mamin, a drinks package in your room fridge, tropical fruit display,the  use of tennis court and equipment, snorkeling, kayaking, mini-sailing, windsurfing, the use of beach chairs and beach towels, a guided boat snorkel trip, a resort scuba diving course for beginners or two dives for certified divers, a bottle of French champagne, one hour Swedish Massage, half-a-day Jungle Biking in the Anse Mamin Valley, two Anse Chastanet  T-shirts, a half day sailing on the skippered resort yacht Serenity, and an anniversary certificate of US$ 500 to be used on a return visit. (Unused features are not refundable).

w. Jade Mountain

t: @JADEMOUNTAIN

Article written by Jeremy Bacon

SEE ALSO: Boucan Restaurant in St Lucia – review by Jeremy Bacon